The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Barberry plant, botanically known as Berberis thunbergii and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Helen’.
The new Barberry plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Grand Haven, Mich. The objective of the breeding program was to develop new unique Barberry plants with attractive foliage, improved stress tolerance and resistance to Black Stem Rust (Puccinia graminis).
The new Barberry plant originated from an open-pollination in June, 2003 of Barberry thunbergii ‘Concorde’, not patented, as the female, or seed parent and an unknown selection of Barberry thunbergii as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Barberry plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor during the summer of 2006 as a single plant within the progeny of the stated open-pollination in a controlled environment in Grand Haven, Mich.
Asexual reproduction of the new Barberry plant by softwood cuttings in a controlled greenhouse environment in Grand Haven, Mich. since the summer of 2006 has shown that the unique features of this new Barberry plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.